An Oregon livestock producer must pay $13,700 to the Oregon Department of Agriculture for filing a “frivolous” lawsuit against the agency, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. Magistrate Judge John Acosta found that ODA is entitled to collect attorney fees from William Holdner, a rancher in Columbia County who filed a complaint claiming he’s not subject to state water quality regulations.

Before his problems with water quality regulations began, Holdner raised about 500 cow-calf pairs on his property.

Holdner was repeatedly cited by ODA for pollution violations on his property. He was found guilty of felony water pollution charges in 2012 and sentenced to five days in jail and $300,000 in penalties.

In response, he claimed to be exempt from state and federal water regulations, arguing that ODA had abused its power in regulating his operation under the Clean Water Act.

In 2009, 2012 and 2015, Holdner filed lawsuits arguing that his “land patent” prohibited the enforcement of water regulations on his property, but those claims were all rejected by federal judges.

In light of the past rulings, Holdner’s claims in the most recent case “could not be considered viable at the time they were filed,” since he “had clearly been warned any additional complaints attacking the legality of defendants’ regulation of Holdner’s livestock operation would not succeed,” Acosta said.

Because the complaint was “frivolous, unreasonable or without foundation,” ODA’s attorneys are entitled to recover their fees, the judge said.

However, Acosta did not grant the full $23,800 the state’s lawyers sought in court filings and reduced the amount by more than $10,000 because some of the hours billed by the state were duplicative, among other reasons.

In 2014, Holdner was prohibited from owning cattle after being convicted of animal neglect, which resulted in a sentence of five years of probation.

TUESDAY, NOV. 15

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — When he visited Eugene last spring, Donald Trump promised to revive Oregon’s timber industry, which for decades has been hamstrung by severe curbs against logging in federal forests west of the Cascades summit.

“Timber jobs (in Oregon) have been cut in half since 1990,” he said during his May 6 stump speech to a revved-up crowd at the Lane Events Center. “We are going to bring them up, folks, we are going to do it really right, we are going to bring them up, OK?”

Trump didn’t offer specifics as to how — or how much — he would revive logging and milling, but he alluded to loosening federal restrictions.

Now, Trump supporters and critics in Oregon will see if he can live up to his promise.

Trump’s election as president brings optimism to the state timber industry and acute uneasiness to environmental groups that have fought for decades to ensure that logging on federal lands complies with federal environmental law.

Both sides now wonder if and how Trump’s administration­ and Republican lawmakers might seek to weaken long-standing key environmental laws, such as the Endangered Species Act, reports The Register-Guard. Enforcement of that law and the National ­Environmental Policy Act were key in the late 1980s and early 1990s to halting the intensive, widespread logging that had prevailed for decades on federal forests in Western Oregon, Western Washington and Northern California.

The Northwest Forest Plan, implemented by the Clinton administration in 1994, has severely restricted logging on federal lands in the region ever since.

But undoing the Northwest Forest Plan and rolling back environmental laws are not necessarily easy tasks — even with a Republican in the White House and a GOP-controlled House and Senate.

Timber interests in Oregon welcome Trump as president.

“We’re cautiously optimistic it’s going to present some opportunities for us to put people back to work in rural communities and certainly to improve the health of our forest,” said Jim Geisinger, executive vice president of the Associated Oregon Loggers. “For the last two decades, we’ve just seen too many catastrophic wildfires, too many mills close, too many rural communities fall apart socially and economically, and I think this will be an opportunity to restore some of that.”

The Salem-based trade association represents 1,000 logging companies in Oregon.

For 40 years, Geisinger has been a voice for logging in the state, traveling to Washington, D.C., to speak about how federal policies affect the industry.

Cause for concern for environmentalists

The worry among environmental groups contrasts the optimism of timber interests in regards to how Trump and the officials he appoints will manage public forests.

Possibilities for agriculture secretary, who oversees the U.S. Forest Service, include Texas Agriculture Secretary Sid Miller, and possibilities for interior secretary, who oversees the Bureau of Land Management, include former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Lucas Oil co-founder Forrest Lucas, according to news reports. All of them lean toward resource extraction rather than preservation.

Federal forests in Western Oregon are split between the Forest Service and the BLM.

“We don’t think Trump has a mandate to weaken environmental protections or return to old-growth clearcutting on public lands,” Arran Robertson, spokesman for Oregon Wild, wrote in an email Friday. The Portland-based nonprofit group advocates for old-growth protection.

“Clearly, those were not major issues in the presidential campaign,” he wrote. “However, there are certainly folks in the logging industry who feel the time is ripe to repeal the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, etc. ... and prioritize their interests in public lands over other values (like tourism and recreation, clean drinking water and wildlife).”

For decades, environmental groups brought and won lawsuits based on the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and other environmental laws.

“Everything appears to be on the table at this point,” said Josh Laughlin, executive director of environmental group Cascadia Wildlands in Eugene. “I would like to think that the decades of progress that have been made, in terms of safeguarding the values that these unique landscapes in the Northwest and that the laws provide, will be upheld through the power of the people.”

Both senators and four out of five Oregon congressmen are Democrats. U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River, is the lone Republican representing Oregon.

Some in the past have carefully calibrated their positions, calling for more logging on federal lands, but also increased environmental protections — two seemingly contradictory goals.

“Sen. (Ron) Wyden will continue to stand up for clean air and clean water, will keep working to find real solutions to bring jobs back to rural areas and continue fighting to protect Oregon’s and the nation’s treasured public lands,” Keith Chu, a spokesman for the Oregon Democrat, wrote in an email.

Resistance in Congress could be enough to stop changes to environmental laws, Travis Joseph, president of the American Forest Resource Council, wrote in an email.

The Portland-based association advocates for sustained-yield timber harvests in public forests.

“Even under Republican control, it’s difficult to imagine Congress will make major revisions or changes to (the) ESA or the Clean Water Act,” he wrote. “Those changes would take 60 votes in the Senate, and those votes aren’t there. However, federal timber harvests can be meaningfully increased in a manner that is entirely consistent with the ESA and Clean Water Act.”

The GOP held onto its slim majority in the Senate in Tuesday’s election. Republicans have 51 out of the 100 seats and may win one more in a December run-off in Louisiana. Democrats have 46 seats, and independents hold two.

Trump talks timber

During his May visit, Trump read to the audience at the Lane Events Center facts his statisticians compiled for him about Oregon. Timber topped the list.

“Timber is a crucial industry but it has been hammered by — oh, why are we surprised? — by federal regulations, right?” Trump said. “Oregon lost three-fourths of its timber mills since 1980. Is that possible? Three-fourths? That is a lot of timber mills, right?”

Since then, Trump has provided no specifics about how he would change regulations.

Protection of the northern spotted owl — which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act in 1990 — and old-growth timber contributed to the timber industry’s drastic decline in Oregon.

Ruling in a lawsuit brought by environmental groups, a federal judge halted most logging on federal lands west of the Cascades summit. Then, the federal government put the Northwest Forest Plan in place to protect the owl and other wildlife, prioritizing preservation of old-growth forests on which the owl relies.

The plan also, on paper, allows for considerable logging, but those logging levels have never been met because of the environmental damage they were expected to cause. That has prompted increased criticism of the Northwest Forest Plan.

Experts differ on how much harm the federal­ logging cutbacks did to timber employment. Some studies found that jobs were lost because of mill automation not environmental rules.

Federal officials have begun to consider revisions to the Northwest Forest Plan, Geisinger said. “It’s antiquated,” he said of the plan.

Trump’s choices for public-lands posts will lead that revision.

“It’s too early to tell what a Trump administration will look like, who will serve in key positions and what the priorities will be,” wrote Joseph of the American Forest Resource Council. “But the Northwest Forest Plan is already being revised by the Forest Service, and the Trump administration will play a significant role in the development of a new plan.”

The numbers Trump used about timber when he visited Oregon — three-fourths of the mills closed since the 1980s and half of the timber jobs cut since 1990 — are reasonably correct, “but they are incomplete,” said Ernie Neimi of Natural Resource Economics in Eugene.

For decades, Neimi has followed the timber economy in Oregon. He said the state used to have many more smaller mills. As the industry moved to larger mills and more automation, the number of mills and jobs dropped.

Even if Trump, his cabinet and lawmakers change federal forest regulations, Geisinger said he doesn’t expect to see new mills opening around Oregon.

Instead, he said timber companies would likely first add shifts and then upgrade their existing mills if the federal government allows more harvest on public lands. It typically costs millions of dollars to build and equip a new mill.

“People are not going to make that investment with a veiled promise that the timber is going to be there,” he said.

BANDON -- Retired educator Gail Downs lives on the central Oregon coast and will share her book, "The Black Suitcase Mystery: A World War II Remembrance," at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18, at at the Bandon Public Library. This special…

BOISE — The 2017 water season was kick-started with abundant rain in many parts of the Northwest during September and October.

Many areas received record amounts of precipitation, Natural Resources Conservation Service water supply specialist Ron Abramovich said Nov. 10 during a water supply outlook conference in Boise.

“This is exciting,” he said.

Abramovich also said soil moisture levels are better than last year heading into winter. “This is more good news. We will feel the impacts of that next spring when the snow starts melting.”

A persistent series of storms made October the wettest on record in Idaho and the second wettest in Oregon, said Kathie Dello of the Pacific Northwest Climate Impacts Research Consortium.

Other parts of the Pacific Northwest also received lots of rain in October. Much of the Columbia River Basin received 200 percent of normal or more, said Troy Lindquist, senior hydrologist at the National Weather Service’s Boise office.

“A lot of records were set,” he said. “It was a really good start to the water year.”

Although November has gotten off to a dry start that could change starting the middle of next week, as a new weather pattern is expected to bring more precipitation to the Northwest.

Lindquist said there is a 70 percent chance of La Nina conditions developing during the fall and continuing through the winter.

La Nina conditions typically mean cooler and wetter conditions than normal in the Northwest, he said. Stream runoff is also typically above normal during a La Nina, he added.

The not-so-great news for irrigators who depend on a good water supply is there “wasn’t a lot of carryover in some of the major reservoirs, so we need to wait for winter to play out,” Dello said.

“I hope La Nina comes through for us,” said Brian Sauer, a water operations manager for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

There is some uncertainty among various forecasts over what a La Nina pattern will mean to the region and that is a little concerning, said Jay Chamberlin, manager of the Owyhee Irrigation District, which provides water for 1,800 farms and 118,000 acres in Eastern Oregon and part of Southwestern Idaho.

But the general forecast for cooler weather and above-normal precipitation is encouraging, he added.

The Owyhee reservoir hasn’t filled since 2011. This year was the first time since then that OID patrons have received their full allotment of 4 acre-feet of water.

The reservoir ended this water year with 166,000 acre-feet of carryover water, much less than normal but much more than the previous three years.

“The cards are still out there but the potential for the 2017 water season I think is better for us,” Chamberlin said. “We’re carrying some extra water over and the (forecast for) cooler, wetter weather certainly feels a lot better.”

MONDAY, NOV. 14

SATURDAY, NOV. 12

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — Pacific Northwest wheat leaders say they want to maintain their competitive edge in the global marketplace no matter what the future holds for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.

“The PNW positioned itself in a very solid spot with our overseas customers — we’ve been very transparent, have a lot of dialogues,” said Mike Miller, chairman of the Washington Grain Commission and vice chairman of U.S. Wheat Associates. “The rest of the world is gunning for us right now. We have to be prepared.”

The trade environment in the current marketing year will be critical to price both this year and next, said Randy Fortenbery, economics professor at Washington State University.

The 12-nation TPP, which President-elect Donald Trump said he would reject, was important for keeping the U.S. competitive with Australia in Asia, he said.

“Even in the absence of TPP, the potential tariffs that can legally be imposed on us don’t have to be,” Fortenbery said. “Quality can still matter. If we can deliver the best product, then the buyers and traders may not impose the maximum tariff because they’d still like to have a quality product at a price that’s reasonable for them.”

It will be important to maintain a dialogue and be involved in trade discussions moving forward, Fortenbery said.

“The biggest danger is if we get aggressive in terms of trying to restrict trade, agriculture ... is the sector that will likely be punished by potential trading partners,” he said.

Miller recalled part of a conversation with buyers from the Philippines about how to maintain the region’s trading position, and likened wheat farming to producing “widgets.”

“You build a widget that nobody else can build, and you create the need for it,” Miller said. “You don’t jeopardize the integrity of the widget, you service the widget to where they continually need you to build upon, adapt, modify. Once you find a customer, make sure you understand exactly what he wants, then you service that need.”

Darren Padget, chairman of the Oregon Wheat Commission. said the three commissions work together to maintain wheat quality. He spoke of a visit to Japan with other Northwest wheat producers and farmers from elsewhere in the U.S., and visiting the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

“They immediately looked at the three white wheat guys and said, ‘We’re good,’ and all the eyes went down to the hard red spring guy and said, ‘So, we’ve got a problem,’” Padget said.

To show overseas customers the region is serious about wheat quality, the three commissions have elevated the requirements to consider a wheat variety desirable, Padgett said.

Bill Flory, a member of the Idaho Wheat Commission, encouraged farmers to interact with visiting trade teams when they are in the region.

Oregon’s Willamette Valley wine producers are on a definite roll. Distinguished awards for individual vintages, investment by some of the industry’s biggest names and now this: Wine Enthusiast, one of the industry’s bibles, has named the valley its 2016 Wine Region of the Year.

The Willamette Valley was up against heady competition: the Champagne and Provence wine regions of France, Sonoma in California, and the Greek island of Crete.

The magazine cited the valley’s rapid evolution, beginning from scratch 50 years ago when a handful of pioneering winemakers — only one of whom had agricultural experience — began cultivating Pinot noir grapes, a cool-weather varietal notoriously touchy about being ushered into a bottle.

They figured it out. The valley has since become recognized as one of the world’s premier Pinot noir regions, and is home to 530 wineries and nearly 20,000 acres of grapes.

The valley grows multiple other varietals as well, and skilled viticulturists have taken up the torch in Southern Oregon, the Columbia River Gorge and Eastern Oregon, all of which are expanding vineyard acreage and producing well-regarded wines.

Big companies from outside the state have taken notice, most notably Jackson Family Wines of California and Louis Jadot of France, both of which bought Oregon vineyards and set up shop.

“Outside investment has accelerated,” Wine Enthusiast said in announcing its 2016 Wine Star award winners, “propelled by the recognition that Willamette Valley Pinor noir can challenge Burgundy (France) in its ability to capture the nuance and power of the grape.”

The Willamette Valley earned the award due to the “outstanding quality of its wines and the tectonic shift in wine investments these have engendered,” the magazine said.

Earlier this fall, Wine Enthusiast chose a Pinot gris by Eugene’s King Estate Winery as its best value of the year.

In a prepared statement, Oregon Wine Board Chairman David Beck said the state’s producers are primarily small- to mid-size farmers, more than half of whom make less than 5,000 cases a year.

“This award is the direct reflection of the attention and care given by Oregon’s grapegrowers and winemakers from vine to bottle,” he said.

The magazine’s Wine Star award for American Winery of the Year went to Bonterra Organic Vineyards, of Mendocino County, California.

MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — Jackson County’s attorneys say a legal strategy to oppose an expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument wouldn’t succeed in court.

The Mail Tribune reports that James Carlson, a Kansas-based consultant who fights national monuments, wanted to charge Jackson County $60,000 to stop the proposed expansion. County commissioners turned down the offer Thursday.

Commissioner Doug Breidenthal says he paid out of pocket to fly Carlson in because he thinks the county needs to try a new anti-monument effort. But Commission Rick Dyer called Carlson’s strategy “futile,” saying it hasn’t succeeded in court.

Commissioners left open the possibility of working with Carlson after they have a chance to review a strategy document he prepared for a Utah community fighting the proposed Bears Ears National Monument.

Sundays

Harney County Judge Steven Grasty watched as a news crew from a Portland TV station cornered people in Burns a couple weeks back, asking for reaction to the confounding news that the Malheur Wildlife Refuge occupiers had been acquitted.

He half expected his constituents to complain about the jury because the case had seemed so obvious to many county residents, who endured a 41-day occupation by armed men who came from elsewhere and disrupted their lives.

But he said county residents told the TV news crew, “Look, we’re sick of this stuff. We’re moving on.”

Grasty liked that response. The verdict, he said, was not worth more argument. “It is what it is,” he said. “It’s a system that works whether you like it or dislike it. Were they the right charges? There’s lots of Monday morning quarterbacking about that.”

But in the criminal justice system, he said, “You don’t get a re-do.”

Grasty is moving on, too. He’d said earlier this year that this would be his last go-round as county judge, and he didn’t stand for re-election after three six-year terms. He leaves office at the end of the year, and Commissioner Pete Runnels, who won enough votes in the May primary to avoid a November runoff, will take over as judge. Only a handful of Oregon counties, all of them rural, sparsely populated and east of the Cascades, maintain the county court system of government. They aren’t about to change.

Harney County is deep red Republican. President Obama only got 25 percent of the county vote in 2008, and only 23 percent in 2012. But Eastern Oregon’s votes have always been swamped by Portland, Salem and Eugene, and always will be, which is partly why there is loud disagreement with federal land management policies. The Bundy occupiers figured they’d find support in Harney County.

For the most part, they didn’t. People such as Grasty and Sheriff Dave Ward told them to go home. There were a lot of factors for that, but the main one was that you don’t show up as an armed militia in Harney County, take over a public place where county residents work and visit, and expect to be welcomed — no matter how much people may agree with your baseline message about government.

In addition, this was a county that in 2014 forged the first collaboration between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and private landowners on conserving Greater sage grouse habitat. It was a remarkable series of agreements: Cattle ranchers agreed to manage their rangeland in a way that benefited the bird, while the feds promised 30 years protection from additional regulation even if sage grouse were added to the endangered species list. The agreements were quickly and widely copied in other Oregon counties and in other states. Many people credit them with the government’s decision to keep sage grouse off the list.

That was all in the background when the occupiers arrived, took over, riled up the county, got arrested and went to trial.

Then the federal jury acquitted the occupiers because prosecutors overreached on the conspiracy angle instead of sticking with simpler weapons, trespass and work interference charges. Marty Goold, director of the Harney County Soil & Water Conservation District, said the verdict was like pulling a bandage off a wound that hadn’t healed.

The district served as mediator between federal wildlife officials and local landowners. Despite the verdict, Goold said people involved in the sage grouse agreements are hanging together.

“I’ve seen no ripple in our organization that would tell me or indicate to me that there is a feeling of animosity or distrust in working through the process,” she said. “It’s a continuing discussion. We discuss hard issues with U.S. Fish and Wildlife but do it in a respectful manner to the best of our ability.”

Goold said she’d like to see more consistent land management “across the fencelines,” where private land bumps up against federal land. She said people have to keep talking to each other.

“That’s the critical piece I think a lot of people have to keep in the forefront of their minds when they take on an effort like we did,” Goold said. “There will be some real tough times but there will be some really great rewards.”

Grasty, the county judge, said the fractures remain despite the county’s inclination to move on.

“So you worry,” he said. “I’ve had a couple people say the verdict was precedent setting.”

He disagrees. “That verdict is a verdict of a jury trial; we’re not talking about a Supreme Court decision. They didn’t make a decision on who owns the refuge.

“What people do from this point forward with that decision, or how they interpret it, I don’t know,” he said.

“Worried? Not at this point.”

Grasty went hunting on election day. Next up he’ll be going to the annual Association of Oregon Counties conference, which is in Eugene this year. When the year ends, he’ll leave office. Next spring, he’s volunteered to go out and count birds at a ranch that has a lek, a sage grouse breeding area.

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — For the fifth time since 2012, voters in Josephine County have rejected a tax increase to restore cuts in law enforcement made when the federal government slashed timber payments.

The Grants Pass Daily Courier reports 60 percent of voters opposed the levy. It was the worst defeat of proposed levy since 2008, when 66 percent of voters rejected the idea of an independent law enforcement district.

The measure would have raised property taxes $1.42 per $1,000 of assessed value. That’s on top of the permanent rate of 59 cents, the lowest in Oregon for county government.

Retired TV producer Bill Hunker campaigned heavily against the measure. He said he felt “proud as a peacock” after Tuesday’s vote.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 9

Oregon’s vineyard and winery operators are by nature an optimistic, glass-half-full bunch, and their assessment of the 2016 harvest is no exception.

The Oregon Wine Board’s annual harvest report said the fruit produced throughout the state was marked by “wonderful concentration and complexity with characteristic natural acidity” despite numerous quirks in the growing season.

An unusually warm spring produced a grape bud break two to four weeks earlier than normal, and a following hot spell condensed the flowering period and caused a smaller fruit set for most producers, wine board Communications Manager Michelle Kaufmann wrote.

Average conditions prevailed during the summer, causing smaller berry size but “a higher concentration of flavors,” according to the Nov. 8 report.

The 2016 vintage produced “practically immaculate fruit” with few disease or pest problems, according to the report. Yields statewide were a mix of higher and lower than average. Crop production was down slightly in the Willamette Valley but up in Southern Oregon and Eastern Oregon, Kaufmann said.

The harvest report includes accounts from growers and winemakers throughout the state’s regions. In Eastern Oregon, viticulturist Jason Magnaghi of Figgins Family Wines described the vintage as one of the most interesting in his 16 years.

Bud break and bloom were two weeks early, he reported, but harvest played out at a “nice slow pace” that allowed workers to pick fruit at “perfect ripeness.”

“All indications point to a really exceptional vintage,” he concluded.

In the Willamette Valley, Cristom Vineyards owner Tom Gerrie said his 2016 harvest was smaller than the previous two years but close to his historical average of 2 tons per acre. Variable weather during flowering resulted in small berries and clusters that “lead to depth, intensity and concentration in the young wines,” he wrote for the wine board report.

The 2016 vintage “may be headed toward greatness,” he said.

PORTLAND — After voters defeated Measure 97 Tuesday, the battle over increasing taxes on corporations is likely to rage on in the Oregon Legislature in 2017.

Measure 97 failed Tuesday 58 percent to 41 percent. The measure would have levied a 2.5 percent tax on certain corporations’ Oregon sales exceeding $25 million per year.

The measure was opposed by a coalition of business interests, including many from Oregon’s agriculture sector.

Lawmakers plan to propose a more “reasonable” tax revenue proposal next session to offset a $1.4 billion revenue shortfall in the 2017-18 budget, said Sen. Mark Hass, D-Beaverton.

“I think policy will be developed by lawmakers and interested parties at the next session,” said Rebecca Tweed, Defeat the Tax on Oregon Sales campaign coordinator. “Our coalition came together for the purpose of defeating this $6 billion tax on sales, and we’re thankful we were able to do that.”

Proponents of Measure 97 vowed to lobby lawmakers to make large corporations pay a larger share of Oregon’s tax revenue and protect investments in education and health care, which the measure was intended to support.

“We are going to keep fighting,” said Ben Unger, campaign manager for Yes on 97.

The campaign was scheduled to release details of its next steps at a news conference Wednesday, Nov. 9. Unger declined to comment Tuesday on whether the public employee union-backed Our Oregon would attempt another ballot measure in 2018.

Measure 97 failed Tuesday 58 percent to 41 percent. The measure would have levied a 2.5 percent tax on certain corporations’ Oregon sales exceeding $25 million per year.

A coalition of businesses raised a record-breaking $26.5 million to thwart the measure. Proponents raised about $17.7 million. The ballot measure was the most expensive in the state’s history.

“Voters didn’t buy claims that the $6 billion tax, based on business sales instead of profits, would not increase consumer costs,” Tweed said. “And they understood that the money raised could have been used any way legislators wanted to spend it.”

The opposition’s blast of advertising on television, radio and social media drove home projections by the nonpartisan Legislative Revenue Office that consumers ultimately would pay for much of the measure in the form of higher prices. The office estimated that the typical family would pay about $600 more per year under Measure 97.

Unger said Tuesday his only regret during the campaign was that Yes on 97 failed to raise as much money as the opposition.

He said he believed his campaign’s message resonated with voters.

“We didn’t win this election this time, but we did win the debate,” Unger said. “Because of the work we did, no one is going to accept a proposed school cut or more expensive health care before asking instead of cuts, why not make corporations pay their fair share?”

A legislative mix-up has blocked the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s implementation of a mediation program for growers of conventional, organic and biotech crops.

A lack of interest in the program, however, raises questions about its necessity.

In 2015, Oregon lawmakers passed House Bill 2509, which created mediation protocols for growers who believe nearby farming practices are interfering with their operations.

While the wording of the legislation is broad, it was considered a compromise bill to soothe conflicts among producers of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, and their neighbors.

Another proposal to create “control areas” where GMOs would be subject to restrictions died in committee that year.

When the ODA began the rulemaking process for the mediation program, the agency discovered it lacked the authority to legally implement it.

Another bill passed in 2015, House Bill 2444, clarified language related to mediation by the agency and removed key provisions that ODA relied upon for the GMO mediation program.

“Through the hustle and bustle of the legislative session, it wasn’t cross-checked with the other mediation bill,” said Kathryn Walker, special assistant to ODA’s director.

The problem will require a legislative fix during the 2017 session, she said. “There is interest in correcting the situation.”

Since the law was passed, though, the agency has received no requests for mediation under the program, Walker said.

Growers can seek similar mediation through the USDA, but none have expressed interest with that agency, either.

Problems of cross-pollination among GMOs and other crops aren’t prevalent, said Barry Bushue, president of the Oregon Farm Bureau.

“My guess is there’s probably not a lot of need for it,” Bushue said of the GMO mediation program.

Bushue pointed to a USDA survey that found only 92 organic farms across the U.S. experienced crop losses from GMOs between 2011 and 2014, while the nation has more than 14,000 organic farms.

“It’s incredibly small,” he said.

Oregonians for Food and Shelter, an agribusiness group, wants to know what kind of problems exist, but the lack of conflicts reported to ODA or USDA indicate they’re likely minimal, said Scott Dahlman, the group’s policy director.

“It speaks volumes to the fact that farmers know how to work together and find ways to figure it out themselves,” he said.

It’s possible that some conventional and organic growers haven’t sought help from the mediation program because they see it as bureaucratic, said Elise Higley, director of Our Family Farms Coalition, which supports GMO-free zones.

Perhaps the legislative fix required for the program will allow lawmakers to revisit a 2013 bill that pre-empted local ordinances from restricting GMOs, she said.

Rather than have a mediation program to deal with the consequences of cross-pollination, farmers would benefit more from a system that prevents problems in the first place, Higley said.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Kate Brown defeated Republican opponent Bud Pierce on Tuesday, but the GOP won its first statewide election since 2002, with a victory in the race for the state’s second-highest office.

Republican Dennis Richardson beat Democrat Brad Avakian to become the next secretary of state. It was the first GOP win in a statewide race since then-U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith was re-elected in 2002. The GOP hasn’t won the governor’s office since 1982. The last Republican secretary of state was Norma Paulus, who held the position in the 1980s.

Meanwhile, Ellen Rosenblum held onto her seat as attorney general, the first woman to hold the position, defeating Republican challenger Daniel Zene Crowe.

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden handily defeated Republican challenger Mark Callahan to retain his seat. Oregon’s sole Republican in Congress, Greg Walden, beat Democratic challenger Jim Crary in his district.

Democratic U.S. Reps. Peter DeFazio, Earl Blumenauer, Suzanne Bonamici and Kurt Schrader were also keeping their seats in Congress.

Brown’s victory keeps her in the governor’s job for another two years. She will be finishing the last two years of the term of Gov. John Kitzhaber, who quit in February 2015 because of an influence-peddling scandal swirling around him and his fiancee, Cylvia Hayes.

Brown, the nation’s first bisexual governor, took over for Kitzhaber because as secretary of state she was next in line.

There will be another gubernatorial election in 2018.

In the run-up to Tuesday’s election, Brown touted achievements such as a deal to incrementally raise the minimum wage to as high as $14.75 by 2022 and passage of pioneering legislation to eliminate the use of coal-fired power by 2035.

Pierce, a Salem oncologist and political newcomer, got into trouble by suggesting during a debate with Brown that successful women aren’t susceptible to domestic abuse and sexual violence. He later apologized.

Richardson narrowly lost the run for governor to John Kitzhaber in 2014. Avakian is Oregon’s labor commissioner. Each candidate accused the other of hitting below the belt in the race for secretary of state.

Avakian said Richardson is “extreme, like Trump.” Richardson retorted that Avakian has a history of not paying his bills.

Richardson and Avakian are veteran politicians. In 2003, both came to the state House as freshmen lawmakers.

The treasurer’s race featured three candidates: Democratic state Rep. Tobias Read, Republican and Lake Oswego City Councilman Jeff Gudman, and the Independent Party’s Chris Telfer, a certified public accountant and former Republican state lawmaker.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregonians on Tuesday shot down a state ballot measure that would have taxed companies’ sales of more than $25 million, with many voters worrying that it would hit their own wallets.

Ben Unger, a main backer of Measure 97, conceded defeat Tuesday evening in a message to the media and supporters, saying that “big, out-of-state corporations had to shatter campaign finance records to beat us.”

Tens of millions of dollars were thrown into the battle over Measure 97 by both sides, with the “no” campaign largely funded by mostly out-of-state corporations.

Measure 97 “fell of its own weight when people understood what it would do,” Pat McCormick, a spokesman for the campaign to defeat the tax, said, according to The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Opponents and even the Legislative Revenue Office say every Oregonian would have been affected.

Oregon is one of only five states in America that doesn’t have a sales tax. Opponents called Measure 97 a sales tax in disguise, saying companies that have to pay it will pass on the cost to their customers.

Allison Ellermeier said she had voted against Measure 97 after agonizing over it. The real estate agent voted with her 6-month-old son strapped to her chest and a friend’s daughter in a stroller.

“I voted no, and that’s a hard thing to say because I’m all for taxing all of us for schools and other social services,” she said.

Backers said the revenue from the tax would have gone to education, health and senior services, although it would have landed in the general fund, which the legislature can spend as it sees fit.

Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat who won her own race on Tuesday, said she supported the measure because the state budget is facing a $1.3 billion deficit, and the money is needed to help fund education, health care and senior services.

Republican challenger Bud Pierce said the measure would increase the cost of living for every Oregonian and that instead state government should learn to live within its means.

Consumers would not have been directly taxed by the measure, which was expected to increase state revenue by $3 billion per year. Many businesses that have narrow profit margins felt threatened because sales would have been taxed, not profits. The minimum tax for companies with more than $25 million in sales in Oregon would have been 2.5 percent of the excess over $25 million, plus $30,001.

Even Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders weighed in on it, saying in a statement last week that “at a time of massive income and wealth inequality, it is time for large profitable corporations to start paying their fair share of taxes. That is why I am supporting Oregon 97.”

LANGLOIS -- Wild Rivers Land Trust is inviting its community supporters to come together for a spectacular evening full of music, friends and food on Saturday, Nov. 12.